January 17, 20169 yr Author Oh some more info, that article stated the following: - The national final will take place on February 26th at The O2 Kentish Town and will be 90 minutes long and will apparently be broadcast on BBC Four. - There will be an expert panel that will offer thoughts as to how the songs could be made to look and sound in Stockholm. - The semi-finals of Eurovision will be moving to BBC Four. - There will be special guest performances that will be confirmed on The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 on January 22nd. - Tickets will also go on sale on January 22nd. Sounds quite likely to be fair, let's just hope the expert panel is not the likes of John Barrowman! Actually very pleased by the national final being on BBC Four if that is the case as it will only be proper fans watching who will actually try and choose a good song, and it suggests a focus more on music than entertainment/comedy.
January 17, 20169 yr BBC Four is an interesting move as the format of hosting the semi-finals may have to be tweaked a little. The channel is aimed at an older audience than BBC Three so I don't think the usual chatty fast-paced style format of filler would work as well (fingers crossed for no more Dr Eurovision!).
January 17, 20169 yr BBC Four :lol: reminds me of Electro Velvet getting announced on the red button last year, barely anyone will watch it. Hopefully we still get Scott Mills presenting one of the semi finals like usual even if they're on BBC Four.
January 17, 20169 yr I'm conflicted on this one. BBC Four seems like a bit of a demotion, especially for the National Final (like really, what's so precious to BBC1 on a Friday night that they can't put it on straight after Eastenders?) but on the other hand, being in a proper music venue rather than a studio and with a presenter from the biggest show on British TV is all to the good. Strikes me that they're having this one as a trial run before they can put it in primetime proper once they're shot of The Voice next year.
January 17, 20169 yr Author I think BBC Four is promising, I doubt they'll put on a show with 6 awful acts for a channel that has a high reputation. I'm just glad they are focusing on it as a music show rather than an entertainment show and looking at the logo for the show, it now has the BBC Music logo attached to it. I feel optimistic! I'm really pleased it is on BBC Four just because it'll be away from the casual viewers who still have the outdated view of the contest from the mid 2000s.
January 18, 20169 yr Just LOL at this being broadcast by BBC4 - So we can expect less than 50,000 viewers then?
January 18, 20169 yr Oh BBC4 sounds good. Cultured. Exquisite. Either they're taking it seriously or they're about to change the image of BBC4 for the worse.
January 18, 20169 yr My instant reaction was 'lol BBC 4' (less so for the selection, more sadness for the semi-finals (please don't ditch Scott Mills)) but there are some good points raised that hopefully point towards quality which is what matters at the end of the day. Might look into getting tickets too.
January 18, 20169 yr Apparently the 6 songs are being premiered on Ken Bruce's radio show this Friday as well!
January 18, 20169 yr I hope we're not gonna get dated songs this time but it being premiered on Radio 2 doesn't give me hope, it would be nice if we actually sent something that sounds like what's in our charts at the moment.
January 18, 20169 yr That's great, it would be good to hear them all a few times prior to the evening of the NF, as presumably a LOT of dedicated Eurovision fans will be watching the broadcast and will hopefully therefore have built up a good idea of the best song that we can all flock to vote for/whip up hype for before the evening rolls around. *crosses fingers for SOMETHING decent, anything...please!*
January 18, 20169 yr Author Apparently the 6 songs are being premiered on Ken Bruce's radio show this Friday as well! Unfortunately I've read they are being premiered on 22nd February, not January - so the Monday before the final. Could be wrong though! According to ESC Kaz, Guy Freeman said: - 90 minute TV show - BBC Four is a home of music, same station as Glastonbury and other music events - Eurovision spin off shows don't attract great numbers on BBC One, as Greatest Hits - You need a very competent artist and great staging besides the song - Trying to understand and applying logic to Eurovision is not always the right path - We enter competition to win it - Majority of our audience, according to the survey we've made, wanted a public vote - The record industry don't necessarily want to take part in the contest they will not win, but this year we've got them involved - We're confident the list of 6 songs is good Well I'm glad that all 6 songs haven't come from the open submission and they have got record companies involved!
January 19, 20169 yr BBC 4 reassures me. It's home to the Scandi imports and good quality stuff rather than trash. The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge all rated well there so the ratings don't bother me. ESC will find the fans wherever it is.
January 19, 20169 yr Author According to ESC Nation, these 4 names are rumoured on Twitter: Nicholas McDonald (The X Factor) Jessica Wright (The Only Way Is Essex) Liss Jones (The Voice) Jedward Liss is promising, the other three not so much (although Jess' single was a guilty pleasure!). If these were the types of names we were getting I was actually hoping it was going to be more unknowns than these are, they don't sound very "BBC Four" either. I think Liss is a Team Midas act, so that fits with that rumour we had a few weeks ago. She's very active on Twitter with new tours and songs from what I can see, definitely the most believable of the four to me. Last month she regularly tweeted about possible exciting news, excitement for 2016.
January 20, 20169 yr Author They've updated the logo for the selection show instead to the original one that just reused the one from Greatest Hits last year: http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640xn/p03g1cfz.jpg
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